Tuesday, November 28, 2017

We're thrilled to announce that Kimberly Walters of Sign of the Gray Horse has created another gorgeous shoe buckle design! Copied off an original in a private collection, this plated brass buckle comes in either a gold or silver finish.

I've recently been eyeballing the 1660 bodice from the V&A, remembering how much I love the 1660s and that I've only made one gown once-upon-a-time but really enjoyed it. I also binged on two seasons of "Versailles," and felt giddy tremors of joy when I saw the incredibly detailed chapter on this very bodice in the V&A publication Seventeenth-Century Women's Dress Patterns: Book 2. Add to that a meant-to-be 6 yard piece of golden duchesse satin marinating in my stash and I'm there, planning my gown for Costume College 2018.

Oh no! I felt...weirdness...like...should I not do this gown now because others have already done it and are already doing it? Will they think I copied them? Am I unoriginal? Shouldn't I find something new and interesting and not already done?

Do you ever feel this way?

The thing is.....everything has been done. There is nothing new in historical costuming! Even this original 1660s bodice survives with at least two other examples that are incredibly similar, yet each has its own unique markers.

Many gowns made from the same or similar fabric - the "curtain-a-long" project - every one of these is so different. It's as much about the millinery as the cut of the gown, remember. Costume College 2013.

If you're feeling intimidated from what's come before, take a deep breath and remember that you're an individual - your style sense is your own. History belongs to everyone. Nobody can own historical fashion, the designs, the colors, the trims, the techniques....all of this is available to us to explore and learn and use to create expressions of ourselves through costume.

Abby and Natalie - similar but not the same! Costume College 2014

You will always put your own unique spin on whatever it is you make, just as dressmakers of centuries gone by copied fashionable dress from magazines, prints, paintings, the court, etc., but did it in their own ways. The fabric and color choices, the trim, the fit and silhouette - all of these things will differ between gowns that come from the same source material.

In a perfect world, I would love to get everyone who has made the 1660 V&A bodice (or Bath, or Claydon House) together to gab about our experiences and take some awesome photos. It seems like quite a cool way to connect to each other through making and experiencing.

We don't have to compete. There should be no fear, reluctance, competition, or jealousy in historical dress - we are all here to have fun, learn, experience, play, and enjoy this special slice of history.

Merja and Kendra both made gowns from a fashion plate of Marie Antoinette - they are clearly the same source material, but each lady has made hers her own. Costume College 2013

Bigger discounts and a top-up of everything chillin' in the warehouse that's not part of regular stock. Imperfects have small cosmetic flaws, which equal big savings for you. Plus, we have a few pairs of one-offs and leftover Exclusives. Check them all out in the SALE section.

Plus we have a special holiday combo this year - our new red/white "Dunmore" 18th century shoes + buckles or stockings (free!) + a signed copy of "The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking" for the regular price (woot!). Step your Georgian journey off in the right direction!

We've been doing a few Facebook Livestreams (English Gown, Sacque Gown, Italian Gown, 1790s Gown) on the different sewing projects in the book. Lauren and I also wanted to talk about what it was like to actually write/photograph/pattern/illustrate/edit/insanitysauce the book, so last week, we sat down and chatted about the experience on our "Fashion History" podcast.

We mention in the recording that we plan to supplement some parts of the book. Some things got cut out, some things were forgotten (oops), so we've already created some additional content to help you with your projects and will share more in the future.

One of the gown variation doodles Lauren sketched. None of the variations made it into the book, so we will share these sketches here on the blog later on.

Below is a gridded pattern for the full Italian Gown, which includes information on the skirt panels such as widths and number of breadths, placement of the bodice waist edge, and placement for the ties. We hope you find this useful!

Click to enlarge

When it comes to "workshops," we are thrilled to be collaborating with Jennifer Rosbrugh of Historical Sewing on classes that will use The American Duchess Guide as a textbook. Jennifer will take great care of you, and we'll pop in on occasion to shed some light on particular sections and techniques.

Finally, we want to give a huge, huge, huge thank you to all of you. This book was a big challenge for us, and demanded a lot of blood, sweat, and tears and blood and more blood. We could not have completed this book without your support. We hope that you love the book and that there's something in there that will help you along your costuming journey.

Thank you for going on this grand 18th century dressmaking adventure with us. <3

The idea came about from the shoes we created for Maggie to wear with the 1780 Italian gown - white Dunmores dyed bright red with the heels painted white. Originally only available in black wool or white cotton sateen, the allure of one of our most popular 18th century shoes in leather seemed too ripe to pass up. So here they are, our special holiday shoe: Red & White Leather Dunmore!

The best red leather shoes in the late 18th c. were made of Moroccan, a goat leather with a distinct pebbled finish. While Moroccan isn't available today, we developed a pebbled finish on our calf leather uppers to mimic this historic material.

Additionally, white bound edges and the white leather heel are hallmarks of mid 1770s - early 90s ladies shoes, so we opted for leather-covered heels in white and white twill tape on the edges. This two-tone style is one you see repeatedly in originals, prints, and paintings of the period.

Women of the 18th century loved to wear brightly contrasting shoes with their outfits. While it may seem a bit of a "risk" to wear red and white shoes with your attire, we encourage you to try them - bold red shoes seem to go with everything, weirdly, and you can accent almost any gown with a bit of red here and there to make it pop. You can see the variety in these fabulous prints (just a few of *many* depicting red and white shoes):

We're so excited about our special limited holiday Dunmore shoe, and we hope you are too! We only ran 200 pairs in ten sizes, so if you're madly in love with these, don't wait (or ask very nicely for Christmas or Hanukkah).

Also, for our Black Friday Sale,November 24 - November 27, we are offering a combo deal with the new red Dunmores, free buckles or stockings (your choice), and a signed copy of our book for the sale price. Skip on over to AmericanDuchess.com to check it out!

Friday, November 3, 2017

This week on Fashion History with American Duchess we speak with the amazing Zoë Beery, a writer for Racked, about her article on how flappers didn't wear fringed dresses (at least not the ones that we all think of today as "flapper" dresses --- you know, the ones you find in the Halloween costume pop up shops...)

Zoë Beery rocking some great vintage fashion

While we started down the path of the origin of this 1920s fringed flapper dress myth, as with so many of our interviews, the three of us found ourselves discussing the evolution of gender, sexuality, and fashion and the quirky juxtaposition of the 1920s vs. the 1950s. It was quite the fun discussion, which lead to a few nice moments of deep thought and contemplation during and after our chat with Zoë.

We really enjoyed this thought provoking episode and hope you do, too! If you have any thoughts on what we talk about this episode, feel free to leave a comment below.

<3
Abby & Lauren

P.S. -- This episode was recorded through a Skype call, and sometimes that leads to funny noises because of weird internet connections. :)